Can static electricity cause a blown fuse in amp?

The static charge is going thru your CD interconnects to the preamp signal inputs which amplify it enough to overload your amp's inputs. Make sure the CD player is properly grounded so the static is drained off right at the CD player.

Same advice if your CD goes directly to your amp.

I've tried grounding anything and everything in the signal path and the preamp STILL mutes when the humidity is low enough and the gods are angry. I can even do this by simply touching a tonearm when playing another source (CD)and, believe me, the arm is well grounded as is the turntable itself.

Some years back I took out the whole display of my cd player with a static charge...

What kind of IC's are you guys using? Are they shotgun type (with floating shields?) and if they are, do all arrowheads point to the preamp (including the ones that go between pre and amp?) This is a solvable problem. I know, I live in Tucson where the only way to get the humidity up over 9% is to jump in the pool ;-)
.

In my case, I've tried various ICs to no avail. Problem arrived with the preamp (CJ Prem 17LS2), but nobody else seems to have experienced it, and nothing CJ did was any help. They even brought over a duplicate preamp and it muted here just like mine does. Too bad I love the thing, otherwise.

It usually mutes quietly and I've never blown a fuse, but the muting is occasionally accompanied by pretty loud pops.